tori always knows
by Thego
Summary: cat valentine. she lives in her own little world. a little clueless. naive. not very bright. in fact, she's so dumb, it must not be real. because its not real. keep in mind, things aren't always as they appear. cori. one-shot.


Because I tend to write only my favorite shippings in my fanfics and wanted to expand myself to a broader scale, I used a random decision maker to put in all the Victorious ships I could think of, and it picked one for me, and I decided that, whether or not I approved the ship, I would write a short fanfic about them. So I did, and I got…. CORI. For those of you who don't know, I like to stick as close to realistic as I can get, and this is written from Cat's POV, although in third person. Here it goes:

"Well…?" A second or two past as Tori waited for a reply. Cat blinked back up at the brunette, oblivious to what was expected of her.

"What?" she asked, furrowing her brow.

"Do you have a book?" was the reply. Cat hated the way everyone always talked to her, as if she wouldn't be able to understand words spoken at regular speed. But she knew it was her own fault, people couldn't help thinking she was a lot dimmer than she was if she never showed them, or proved them wrong. "… So we can study for our Chemistry test…? The one that's tomorrow?" Tori was still trying to see a lightbulb go of in her head.

This was the part where she'd have to lie a little. Immediately getting nervous, Cat's instincts kicked in, telling her to play dumb. "Oh, is that what we were doing?" she slapped herself on the forehead. "I thought we were watching a movie! Ha ha! Ha!" She closed her eyes and leaned her head back in an overdramatic laugh, winning a slightly uncomfortable smile from Tori. "Hey, here's an idea, why don't we share yours?" she suggested, blinking up at her friend eagerly.

"Ah… okay," Tori shrugged, probably having decided just to go with it. She gave Cat a light smile and scotched a closer to her on the couch to let her see the textbook, propping it between them.

With a childlike giggle, Cat scotched back, bumping hips with Tori playfully. Tori smiled without looking up from the book. "Alright, so it says here that to convert mass into moles, you divide it by the molar mass of the substance. And… I have no idea what I just read. Hey, Cat-"

"NO!" Cat shouted strongly. Tori turned to look at her, an eyebrow raised in concern and question. "What if I don't know the answer?"

"Then… we can try and figure it out together," Tori replied through a bit of a chuckle. Once she had received a nervous nod of agreement from Cat, she started, "So, my question was… oh yeah, this "molar mass" stuff, how do you… find it?"

Cat's expression cleared and she let out a small gasp of relief. "Oh, that's easy!" she said with a bright smile. Taking the pencil from Tori's hand and grabbing her friend's notebook from off the study table, she began scribbling things down on a blank page. "Okay, so the first thing you need to do is list all the elements in the substance. So, if we have… carbon… pentoxide, we'd take… C, and O, since those are the symbols. You following me?" she paused to look up at Tori.

"Ye… yeah," Tori nodded. She looked as though she was trying her best to concentrate, although she seemed a bit distracted.

Cat nodded and continued, "So, the next step is to multiply the mass of the element on the periodic table by the number of times the element appears. So since we have only one element of carbon," she gestured to the carbon molecule she had drawn, "We can just use the mass on the periodic table. And since we have five oxygens, we multiply 16 by 5. Then, you add the products together, and… there's your answer!" Cat spread her arms in victory. "92.01 grams of Carbon Pentoxide! Make sense?"

"O- okay. Wow, I- I think I get it now. Thanks, Cat," Tori replied, her voice sounded a little dazed.

Cat shrugged off her immediate offense at Tori's shocked tone and let out a slight giggle instead, getting quiet.

Tori cleared her throat and continued to read aloud from the Chemistry book. As she did so, Cat, who already knew and understood most of the material, let her mind drift other places. Why were things so awkward and sticky tonight? She and Tori hung out lots, usually things went a lot smoother than this. Was it her and her dumb crush? Yeah, it must be. Tori was fairly steady when it came to moods. Maybe she was just putting up a shield, but to Cat, she always came across perky, friendly, and all around beautiful, in and out. That cute little Tori mood that made her so desirable.

At about this time in her train of thoughts, Cat realized she was being watched. Snapping back into reality, she raised her eyebrows and looked back at Tori. "Hm?"

"Cat, are you even paying attention?" Tori asked, sounding exasperated.

"Well, I was trying to, but…" Cat defended herself. "But you were distracting me."

Tori looked increasingly frustrated. "How was I-?"

"You just look so pretty, alright?" Cat shrugged. "Maybe we should take a break," she said in a more innocent voice. "It seems like we've been studying for hours!"

"Its only been twenty-five minutes," Tori protested, probably regretting inviting her to the study session by now.

"Please-y?" she asked, putting on a cute, pouty face and hoping Tori would take the bait.

Tori sighed, rubbing her face in her hands. "Fine, I'll go… pour us some lemonade!" she decided, getting up off the couch and heading into the kitchen. Cat's brown eyes followed her as she twirled a strand of red-velvet hair around with her finger, biting her lip.

"Thank you!" she called after a moment of hesitation. Tori's head was stuck in the refrigerator, so it was unlikely she had been heard.

A few moments later, Tori handed Cat a glass of pink lemonade and sat down on the couch next to her. There was brief silence between them as both girls took a long sip of their juice.

Tori swallowed and set her cup down. "So, hows it going?" she asked.

"Not so great," Cat replied, her eyes flickering down to stare at her feet.

"Aw, what's wrong?"

"My brother, he just got sent away to the special hospital again. He's probably not coming back for a while."

"That's too bad, Cat," Tori said with a frown, rubbing the red-head's thigh comfortingly. "I'm sorry."

Silence drew over them for a few seconds. Then Cat smiled widely. "Just kidding!" she said.

Tori turned to stare at Cat indigently. "Cat!" she said. "Cat, that's not funny, I was worried!"

Cat's smile faded. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you," she looked down at her feet once more and pouted. "I just wanted to make you laugh."

Tori smiled a little. "Silly," she replied, swatting Cat's nose gently with one finger. Cat gasped and cupped her hands over her nose.

"Hey, that was my nose!" she exclaimed.

"That's correct," Tori replied playfully, a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

"I'll get you for that, Tori Vega!" Cat said.

"We'll just see about th- WOAH!" Tori was cut off as Cat tackled her, laughing and screaming for the red-head to get off. After a couple minutes passed like this, Tori finally shoved her away. "Alright! Alright! We really need to get back to studying now," she said, fixing her hair and trying to get herself into a more serious mood.

Cat sighed in disappointment, having wanted that moment to last much longer than it had. But she didn't protest as they sat back down on the couch and Tori pulled out the textbook once more.

Two hours later, the girls were so tired they probably could have fallen asleep on command. "Tori?" Cat spoke up. "Maybe its time to call it quit-zies."

Tori nodded. "Alright. See you tomorrow, Cat!"

"Bye," Cat said with a grin, heading for the door, she was just about to turn the handle when Tori spoke up.

Wait- Cat, were you… I thought you were acting a little… different, tonight." Cat furrowed her brow, not really understanding. Tori started to explain, standing up to walk closer to the red-head. "Like, you just seemed a little… un-Catlike, I guess," Tori struggled to find a good explanation.

"Oh." Cat took a step away from the door. "You mean… smart?" she tilted her head.

"No! No… w-well," Tori twisted her lip.

"Its okay," Cat smiled a little. "I know what you meant. I guess it was because…" now Cat was the one struggling for the right words. "Well… you." She shrugged.

"I don't…"

"I love you," Cat said, the words spilling out before she could stop them. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them and looking straight at Tori. "I mean it."

Something in her tone must have told Tori she wasn't joking, because her friend was taking everything the way she meant it to have been said. "N- no, Cat, I don't think you do… n- not like that…" Tori's final words were stifled as Cat's lips met hers. The shorter girl had had to stand on the very tips of her toes in order to reach. She pressed firmly against the brunette in a sweet, meaningful kiss. After a moment, she drew back, her hands sliding forward so they were resting on Tori's shoulders rather than flung over them. She looked deep into the girl's warm, brown eyes.

"Trust me… I do," she said with an ever so slight, and impossibly intelligent smile. Taking a step back, Cat turned to leave a stunned Tori in the living room as she slipped through the door and headed towards her car.


End file.
